Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Final Touches Being Made on Iowa State Fair Butter Cow

T-minus six days until the gates swing open for the Iowa State Fair
and Sarah Pratt puts some final touches on the face of the iconic butter
cow, a tradition still going strong after 105 years. The hooves still
need some detail work and she needs to finish the tail.
Five-gallon
buckets of butter await in a cooler while giant blocks that just
arrived need to be cut and kneaded to release water and make her medium
more pliable.
But by the time Aug. 11 rolls around, Pratt will
finalize her 11th version of Summer, the butter cow, as the official
butter sculptor of the Iowa State Fair.
Pratt took over the
sculpting duties in 2006 after 45-year veteran Norma “Duffy” Lyon
retired. Pratt spent 15 years apprenticing under the first woman butter
sculptor in the country, learning to use clay sculpting tools, even a
dentist’s pick and mainly her own hands to take 1,000 pounds of butter
and turn it into a cow...
Pratt, a former special education teacher, sketches out her sculptures
in advance and welds together a metal and wire form on wood that gives
her the basic structure of the piece. Already she completed a replica of
the Starship Enterprise as well as Nyota Uhura and Spock, part of the
butter cow companion exhibit. Capt. James T. Kirk’s metal frame already
leans on his elbow in the commander’s seat and Dr. Leonard McCoy awaits
his coating of butter.

I love me some butter sculptures and massive amounts of fried foods, with some creepy carnies thrown in for laughs. Our county fair starts on Friday, and we've got the food and carnies, but lack the butter art.